You Live in a World Once Mine
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day four hundred and forty-seven: The first time she walked into that version of McKinley High, she wasn't ready.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 21st cycle. Now cycle 22!_

_So in cycle 18 (days 358-378), for the one-year anniversary of Gleekathon, I did POV Swaps/Prequels/Sequels of favorite stories of mine from throughout the first year. However as I had to plan ahead, I had to cut off at a certain point, even though the year wasn't technically over. So I wanted to include the stories between the cut-off point and the start of cycle 18, so here we are. There will be six of them: 2 POV swaps, 2 prequels, 2 sequels :)  
**Today's story** is a POV Swap to #344 "We're Living in a World of Fools" a story originally posted September 30th 2010  
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**"You Live in a World Once Mine"  
Rachel/Jesse  
Extra to the Series **

This was her school… It looked exactly the same as in her real world, so how could it not be her place? Had she made so little impact? Surely something would have shown that this McKinley High had not seen the likes of Rachel Berry… But it was… a replica, down to the last poster… She passed her locker and she wondered… She turned the dial on the lock, left, right… she pulled. It opened. At first she wouldn't open the door, but curiosity got the best of her. And there it was, one difference at McKinley. It was someone else's things in there: Jesse . Of course… Who else would it be?

She closed the locker and went on toward the Glee room, slowly… She didn't want them seeing her, not before she saw them. Only as she approached, she heard nothing… There should have been something at this point. Finally though, she got to the door and saw why she'd heard no one: they weren't there. So now this had to mean they were in the auditorium. Actually, this was perfect. She could go upstairs, observe them where they couldn't see her, in the dark. So she went on upstairs, quietly got inside without notice; now she heard the sounds she'd been expecting.

She tried to tell herself, before she saw them, that it wasn't really them, not her Glee Club. They may look like them, sound like them, for all intents and purposes they were them… Except they weren't. They didn't know her; they hadn't been through the same things. They weren't them, they weren't them, they weren't…

She saw them all down there, and her heart leapt… She made herself get over the initial shock, backing away just in time not to be spotted by Jesse, she realized as she saw him look up. She tried to stand still, so not to draw his eye again. Except for Jesse being there instead of her, everyone was exactly as she…

She almost stepped out of the shadows when she spotted Quinn, in the back row… She should have been showing, but she wasn't… She was as thin as she'd been before, when she was a Cheerio… But she still wore normal clothes, no uniform, the way she did after she was kicked off the squad. But if she wasn't pregnant, then why wasn't she still a Cheerio? It was curious, but not nearly as much as the lack of belly… She could understand some things changing, but this one just unsettled her.

The surprises kept on coming when, after the song had ended, Quinn had gone to Jesse and acted like he was her… No, really? The shock of it all, it made her forget for a beat that she was meant to be hiding, and she stepped forward, into the light, revealing herself. This time there was no doubting it… Their eyes locked… and something inside her head just said 'no, turn around and walk away.' It was the response which spoke the loudest, and so… she listened to it. Maybe it was too soon… she had no idea what she was doing; she saw that now… It was too much, to see them all… What was she supposed to say? 'Hey, you don't know me, but I'm having a bit of a 'Freaky Friday' problem here…' No, no… She needed more time.

She startled and turned on reflex when she felt someone touch her shoulder… and there was Jesse… he'd run after her? She waited, silent. Whatever was going on, she wasn't going to speak until she knew more. "H-hi…" Jesse opened. "You were watching up there," he claimed, and she kept quiet. When he held out his hand, it was like they were back to that day when he 'introduced her to Jesse,' and in fact… "I'm Jesse." She had to tell herself, over and over in her head, that it was going to be okay, before finally putting her hand in his. She looked him in the eye the whole time, like nothing was wrong.

"Rachel," she gave a courteous smile, though on the inside she was having to deal with a colossal onslaught of memories… "I, uh… I was just curious, I wasn't spying," she shook her head, remembering herself.

"Right, no, of course," he let go, and she straightened back up. "You're with Vocal Adrenaline, yes?" She just nearly frowned, confused, but then she remembered 'where' she was and retracted the frown as seamlessly as she could.

"I… yes, I am." She didn't know what to say after that… She really wasn't ready; she didn't know how to look him in the eye and pretend she didn't know him, didn't feel a thing.

"And you won your Sectionals, congratulations." She tried not to smile, but had to… "What'd you sing?" he asked, and… she was blank. She had no idea what her Vocal Adrenaline had performed… What if he checked? She started to answer, before even finding an answer, but finally it came.

"Well, I… I mean, we… What'd you sing?" her posture shifted; she'd saved it.

"I don't know." She paused… She had not expected that. What was he… "And neither do you." She didn't know whether to take a step toward or away from him, and then it snapped into realization… her finger snapped out, too.

"You, too?" He nodded, and… she breathed out… She wasn't alone, she wasn't crazy… "I've been thinking I'd gone crazy, more than my own kind of crazy!" she had to let out, which made him laugh, but for her… "Except… it's real, it feels real…" He grew serious now.

"Yeah." Her mind went back to her home situation, and he noticed. "Everything okay?"

"My fathers aren't together, in here," she revealed, knowing she couldn't tell anyone else, expecting them to understand she felt his hand on her arm, and it brought her back. "But you and Quinn though…" she had to ask.

"Yeah, I'm still figuring that one out," he answered, and she had to address…

"She doesn't look…"

"Pregnant? No, I know. Something's changed it, obviously." She looked at him, and… she had no idea what he meant. "No one else seemed to have any idea about what's going on, but we do… So somehow the fact of either of us being here or there… or not being here or there, it's affected how things happened." Now she just blinked, at the implications…

"Are you saying I had something to do with Quinn getting pregnant?" For an instant she tried to think back to what might have done it, but it was too traumatic to try and consider it all…

"I don't know, maybe, somewhere… Any idea why Schuester's so crabby?" This one caught her off guard at first, made her heart flip, but then she knew exactly…

"The baby…" Seeing his confusion, she went on and explained. "Mr. Schuester's wife, she spent months pretending she was pregnant, and he had no idea." When this wasn't enough, she went on. "Mrs. Schuester was going to adopt Quinn's baby, pass it off as their own, so…"

"No baby, no loophole," Jesse filled in.

"So whatever happened instead means… different outcome for them, too." She actually heard herself, and she just had to pause. "Is it weird that it all makes sense?"

"Little bit," he told her.

"Meanwhile we're nowhere near 'sense' with how this happened," she frowned, then more 'alarmed,' "… and how we fix it."

"I've been thinking… this place is different, but not all of it is."

"What?" she blinked.

"Well, we're meeting now, shortly after Sectionals. When did we meet before?"

"After Sectionals." Now it did freak her out a bit, she had to admit.

"Do you have family here in Lima that you could stay with for a while?"

"What? Why?" she asked, blindsided.

"Well if we're going to figure this out, wouldn't it be better if we were together? Besides, I came here eventually, maybe you need to do the same." He was being so… she'd call it 'Old Jesse.' And as nice as it could be, all she'd think was…

"With one big difference. You came in order to trick me, when I thought you came because you cared for me." She needed to say it, and his face…

"Okay, I know that there are some things we need to talk about, and I promise you we will at some point, but for now we should get things moving, right?" She stared at him and… she wanted to trust him, and go right with it, especially with this situation, but… he'd made her cautious.

"I don't know…" she admitted. "I just… I guess I need to think about it. I mean, sure, right now being in that other home, with just one of my fathers, it's… hard," she paused. "And it might be easier to be back in town, but… you understand why it's complicated for me to be here… with you…" She blinked at him.

"I know," he replied. "Can you decide in three days? Then we can meet back… where we first… first met?" She couldn't take more.

"Three days," turned and left… She couldn't cry, wouldn't cry…

THE END

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**A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
****In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
****always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!**


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